Language and politics

I wrote about the Hierarchy vs. the Networks the other day, and wish to return to an aspect of political discourse - again, this applies to more than just to Poland and the UK.

I wrote about Mankind's journey from barbarism towards civilisation; from brute towards angel.

Language is an important aspect of this.

The Language of Absolutes

Watching Donald Trump, in his use of absolutes, confirms this. He defines himself by decrying things he claims to be against in absolute terms. "The worst...", "always...", "never...", "everywhere..." etc. This is the language of the Hierarch, painting the world in simplistic terms to his followers.

The language of the networks is more nuanced. "Usually..", "in most cases...", "one of the better...". The board, or the committee, or the council, prefers precise terminology to sweeping generalisations.

The wilder the assertions, the better it plays with the unsophisticated, partially engaged voter. 'Post-truth politicians', says the Guardian's Jonathan Freedland of Trump and Boris Johnson. For politicians craving personal power for themselves, the truth gets in the way of a good line. "Pedants still hung up on facts and evidence and all that boring stuff are left for dust, their boots barely laced while the lie has spread halfway around the world," writes Mr Freedland.

Both hierarchies and networks have their narratives, but by their nature those spun by the hierarchs are simpler than the more complex, detail-laden narratives that the networks employ.

The Language of the Playground

Hierarchs are happier with the language of the playground. Insults bandied around by 15 year-old boys, designed to trigger aggressive behaviour, are the ritual of forming a hierarchy. Who's tougher. Who's the leader of the gang. Who's top dog.

As we grow up, name-calling is no longer seen as big or mature. Aggressive language is ineffective in the workplace as a management strategy, especially in a knowledge-based economy. Vilification of colleagues or subordinates does not move the business forward. Leaders stooping to such behaviour are merely revealing their weakness.

But in politics, where it's not a workforce that needs to be motivated on an everyday basis, but voters in a four- or five-year cycle. Voters are not as engaged or as knowledgeable about how the state functions compared to employees, who turn up each day and know how the business operates.

The language of anger and hate has no place in the modern political discourse. And yet it's there. How should civilised people react?

Fighting back

All around the world there are good guys and bad guys. The good side (in my book) tend toward networked solutions to human problems. The bad guys seek to perpetuate or re-establish hierarchical structures. The bad guys name-call and simplify complex issues to laughably basic levels. The good guys tend not to retaliate with aggressive language and will often point out that the issues being discussed are more multi-faceted than the hierarchs paint them. Illegal migration from Mexico? Simple! Build a wall. And make Mexico pay. Will calling Trump "a deluded egomaniac" put off swing voters from putting their X against his name? Or is it politically more effective to point out the many practical reasons why building a wall along the Mexican border, financed by Mexico, would be counterproductive?

How best then, to fight back against the powerful forces that hold back Mankind's slow journey towards civilisation? This is something I've not managed to get my head around yet. The Prisoner's Dilemma offers us a powerful algorithm that sets out how we ought to behave toward our fellow man for the optimal outcome. If he gets along with us just fine, we should never do anything against him. Co-existing with him in honest cooperation, we will both flourish. Win-win. Sustainable growth.

Yet what happens when he turns nasty on us? The answer is to punish him - instantly and robustly - and to continue to do so until the moment he asks for mercy, and decides to return to a policy of cooperation. And then cooperate with him, continuing to do so - unless there's a further transgression.

Played out on computers millions of times, the optimal outcome is always the same:
Cooperate - cooperate. Defect - defect. All well and good. But my problem with the Prisoner's Dilemma model is a) how to define 'defect' and b) how to retaliate. The simple answers are a) breach of goodwill and b) proportionately. But these two guidelines need further clarification.

In the political arena, should the civilised Networkers stoop to the level of the Hierarchs, the use the same simplistic language and name-calling back at them? Or fight the battle on a higher plane, appealing to the voters' better instincts?

This time last year:
Trafalgar Square, then and now

This time three years ago:
GM's city car for Europe fails to wow me

This time four years ago:
A biblical sky

This time six years ago:
The parable of the Iron-Filings Factory

This time nine years ago:
Got to get ourselves back to the Garden

Warsaw in May finery

The Ice Saints have not brought a cold snap this May; temperatures this week have been in the low- to mid- 20Cs. It pays to have a camera with you at all times (these days most people do - in their phones; though few use them effectively). Below: seven Fiat 125Ps on Plac Defilad in front of the Palace of Culture. The 1980s cars, painted as taxis of the late communist era, do tourist trips around town.

The strong spring sunshine is best brought out with the circular polarising filter. As you turn it, so the blue of the sky deepens. Below: ul. Marszałkowska crosses over Al. Armii Ludowej, with Pl. Zbawiciela in the background.

Another use of the circular polarising filter is to enhance or suppress rainbows. Below: 'Bow- no 'bow. In the first photo, the filter is turned to maximise the rainbow, then turned through 90 degrees, the rainbow disappears. Without the filter (and with it turned between these two positions), the rainbow is seen, though weakly.

Left: the new Q22 office tower on Al. Jana Pawła II is nearly finished - as is Warsaw Spire. The two new skyscrapers add to Warsaw's modern skyline. This picture was taken from the 26th floor of Rondo ONZ 1, looking north.

Eddie says there's a new fish restaurant nearby (Ę Rybę, Al. Jana Pawła II 18, near the foot of the white building in the mid-foreground). Walking distance from my office - will have to check it out!

Below: between Dworzec Centralny and Złote Tarasy, looking towards the Palace of Culture. It's not quite half past eleven in the morning.

Below: ul. Świętokrzyska, looking west towards ul. Emilii Plater. In the strong afternoon sunlight, it has the relaxed atmosphere of a Mediterranean thoroughfare.

Warsaw is at its best in May and June, before it gets too hot and humid.

This time four years ago:
What's left of PGR Mysiadło

This time five years ago:
What's the Polish for puncture?

This time seven years ago:
Welcome the Ice Saints
[and on cue, temperature falls from 30C yesterday to 12C today at noon]

This time eight years ago:
Like a Kodachrome

This time nine years ago:
The future of cities

Baletowa blues

If you drive to or from work along ul. Baletowa - you will have a tough four weeks. Make alternative plans now, or waste many hours sitting in traffic jams. You have been warned.

From last Friday, right through to Saturday 6 June, the level crossing on ul. Baletowa will be closed to road traffic. This is to allow the new 'down' track to be laid south of W-wa Dawidy. The closure dates, of course, are predicated by the work running to schedule.

How then are motorists going to bypass this crucial crossing? The official detour looks like this (below, map on ul. Postępu in Zgorzała)...

Well, that's clear - use ul. Karczunkowska, turn left onto Puławska, then left onto Sporna, then left onto Farbiarska, then you're on Baletowa. If you're coming from Dawidy, the full diversion via ul. Starzyńskiego is a full 8.5km. Which can take half an hour plus on a weekday.

More info here on TVN Warszawa.

Below: the crossing is closed. Looking west along ul. Baletowa towards Dawidy.

Below: on Saturday and on Sunday, police turned up to stop śmiałkowie who ignored the no entry signs. I must say in the motorists' defence, apart from the one sign in Zgorzała, I could find no other signs giving drivers prior notice of the closure on either side of Baletowa - all the way from Pyry in the east to Jaworowa in the west. Tomorrow will be chaos.

Below: as soon as the police disappear, the motorists are at it again. The level crossing, looking north along the trackbed. Today, not too bad. No work going on. The danger is to suspension on normal two-wheel drive cars with regular ground clearance. Four-by-fours can manage, as can pedestrians and bikes.

Below: on foot, pedestrians can reach W-wa Dawidy station and cross the track. Looking east along ul. Baletowa towards Pyry.

I predict increased traffic for ul. Karczunkowska, while Trombity and Sarabandy will get rat-runners going in both directions. Yesterday was particularly bad, as Sarabandy was closed all day for its entire length for re-asphalting (below).

Below: standing atop a veritable mountain of ballast, ready for the new trackbeds, I can see in the top-left corner W-wa Dawidy station, and beyond it, Warsaw's skyline. My vantage point, around six metres above ground level, gives an idea of just how much ballast has been brought here for the stretch of track between W-wa Dawidy and W-wa Jeziorki stations. Both the 'down' track and - in due course - the 'up' track will be relaid.

By early June, then, in theory at least, the new 'down' track will have been relaid and re-ballasted. If it happens, it will have been around six months from lifting the old rails to switching trains onto the new ones. Which suggests a further six months for the 'up' track. On course for the line running normally with new platforms and tracks by this time next year?

[If you enjoyed my Tracks to Tarczyn post from two weeks ago, you may wish to revisit to see today's pictures at Gołków]

This time two years ago:
Two rainbows

This time three years ago:
Dandelions in bloom

This time four years ago:
Warsaw's city centre - a deli-free zone

This time five years ago:
Patching up the holes

This time seven years ago:
In search of the sublime aesthetic

This time nine years ago:
Flying in from the Faroes

W-wa Okęcie modernisation - not long now...

Twice this week I passed through W-wa Okęcie on my way home from the airport, a good chance to update readers as to progress on the modernisation of the Warsaw-Radom line at the top end.

Below: looking north, we can see that the 'down' platform is nearly ready. The 'down' track has been laid and fresh ballast has been spread over the new concrete sleepers. To the far left, the 'down' freight track that bypasses the platform, still awaiting ballast. Fencing separates the 'down' and 'up' platforms, although for the time being both 'up' and 'down' trains use the 'up' platform (to the right).

Below: "Let them read squat." The new timetable boards are in place, along with the timetables and other passenger info. But the fencing that cordons off the unfinished side of the platform is also in place. The timetable, printed in tiny letters, is about a metre and half from the fencing. Only those with acute vision can see what time their train is due. Me? I use the excellent Bilkom app on my smartphone.

Below: the footbridge is complete, but unopened. It will probably remain in this state for weeks until some building inspector can be bothered to come over and give the construction the green light.

Below: rather than let passengers benefit from a bridge which is not safe until a piece of paper deems it is, to get to the platform from either the ul. Wirażowa side or the ul. Kłobudzka side, you have to negotiate an obstacle course of trip hazards including an active railway line. Unlit at night. Still, as you smash your teeth running for a train, you can be happy in the knowledge that no one will be harmed by using an uninspected footbridge.

Below: trip hazards galore. "Had an accident? Not your fault? Let us sue the €€€€s out of PKP PLK for you." UK-style personal injury litigation would soon sort out this lackadaisical attitude to signing off pedestrian infrastructure.

UPDATE ONE YEAR ON: 5 May 2017. it beggars belief that 12 months can pass and the indolent arsehole responsible for this piece of infrastructure has still not passed it fit for use.

Below: photo taken on Tuesday 3 May, Polish national holiday commemorating the Constitution (first in Europe, second in the world after the USA). A national flag is flown on the 18:40 all-stations service to Skarzysko-Kamienna.

Below: standing on a parallel track to W-wa Okęcie is this works train, hauled by a custom-painted SM42 diesel shunter. The yellow coaches up front are for maintenance of the overhead power lines. Further back there are cranes and other assorted machinery.

Below: a little south of W-wa Okęcie station, the sidings begin. This telephoto shot nicely shows the various sets of points. In the distance, the viaduct taking ul. Poleczki over the tracks.

Below: bonus shot. Taken at the pedestrian crossing on ul. Kórnicka, a well-lit shot of a refurbished ST48 engine hauling a rake of empty coal trucks back towards W-wa Okęcie. Note the dust coming off the wagons - not coal dust, just regular dust. Which puzzled me a bit. The 'down' line is still missing; it will be a few months yet. Then, when it is laid, and the new 'down' platforms are opened at W-wa Dawidy, W-wa Jeziorki and Nowa Iwiczna, the whole process will have to be repeated for the 'up' line and platforms.

At least at W-wa Okęcie the end of the modernisation work is in sight.

This time last year:
I buy a Nikon Coolpix A
[A year on, I'm delighted with it.]

This time two years ago:
More about the Ladder of Authority

This time three years ago:
By bike, south of Warsaw

This time five years ago:
Functionalist architecture in Warsaw

This time six years ago:
What's the Polish for 'to bully'?

This time seven years ago:
Making plans

This time eight years ago:
The setting sun stirs my soul

This time nine years ago:
Rain ends the drought

Politics - networks vs hierarchies (forget 'left' and 'right')

My brother e-mailed me after my recent post concerning the Brexit referendum, suggesting a new way to look at politics. Agree. Left and right might be convenient short-hand labels, but they are increasingly inadequate in today's complex world. My brother suggests another way; networks vs hierarchies.

Networks, based on teamwork, strive towards consensus.

Hierarchies place power in the hand of those higher up the pyramid, passing to its apex.

Do you want to be led? Or do you want to take an active part in the solution?

These are times of fear and loathing, anxiety and mounting mistrust. Part of society (UK, Poland, US, Russia, Turkey - anywhere) will look for a strong personality who can lead them to better days. The other part implicitly believes it's up to them to do it for themselves.

The hierarchy model is driven by a leader hungry for personal power. To obtain and maintain that personal power, there must be a hierarchy - or there will be chaos. The solutions proposed by the leader are varied - they can be nationalist, socialist - or both.

The network does not to be dominated by a powerful individual. The network has a rough idea of the goals - economic, social, geopolitical - and moves haltingly in that direction. Two steps forward, one step back, trial-and-error, muddle-through-somehow. This can be portrayed as ineffectual. But over the decades, it's proven to work better than when a strong leader leads people ineffably in the wrong direction.

In the post-war West, the network model took hold, with enlightened social democracies advancing progress, by and large - but always at a cost. Higher taxes, more regulation. Society was willing to accept this, and the work-in-progress nature of this model - as long as there was economic growth and geopolitical stability.

After 2008, things broke. Debt and stagnation, terrorism, migration, climate change are upon us.

Has the muddle-through-somehow approach failed totally? Dull committees, endlessly poring over the fine detail of policy position papers do not have the popular appeal of firebrand leaders giving simplistic courses of action needed to assuage voters' worries.

Trump, Kaczyński, Putin, Orban, Ergodan - these politicians have an instant response to problems. They take decisions, they define the course. But what if the course they take is ultimately wrong?

The network is like the internet. If one node breaks down, traffic is rerouted.

Networks, as my brother says, evolve to survive. Unfit parts drop away, tested solutions replicate and flourish.

Hierarchies are as good as their leaders. Who can lead them to hell (Berlin, 1945), or, indeed, as also happens, to more positive outcomes.

Networks are about checks and balances. Executive, legislature, judiciary.

Hierarchs tend to concentrate power in to their one hand.

Networks are short distance-to-power cultures (see Geert Hofstede). Western.

Hierarchies are long distance-to-power cultures. Oriental.

So why is the West turning its back on networks? Is it that they don't work? They have kept the world safe for 70 years, and have delivered prosperity and stability.

If America votes for Trump, and the UK votes to leave the EU, it will be in reaction of voters in two long-established democracies to the networked model of governance.

It is worth looking at politics and society through the prism of biology. My brother's suggestion about networks vs hierarchies prompted me to unearth research published in PLOS ONE in February 2013. This looks at the brains of American Democrat and Republican voters and shows a clear correlation to how they respond to risk. Indeed, there's a closer correlation to risk response than to parental socialisation. There are different cognitive processes at play when the two groups think about risk. The research results support evidence that Republicans show greater sensitivity to threatening stimuli.

"Help! We're under threat. Vote for the strongman!"

A short-term fix. Biology, history, economics are suggesting that a networked approach to dealing with risky situations.

Getting it slightly wrong is better than getting it totally wrong. Getting it slightly wrong and retreating can be done without too much loss of face by a network. Hierarchs, being by their own definition, never wrong, can keep charging up a blind alley, unable or unwilling to turn or to accept another way.

These are times for keeping a steady network of hands on the tiller, rather than allow individuals to take the power to make knee-jerk policy decisions that would be regretted later.

This time last year:
45 years under one roof

This time three years ago:
Pozytywki ponds after refurbishment

This time four years ago:
Mayday in the heat (don't exaggerate with the suncream!)

This time six years ago:
Bike ride across rural Poland

This time nine years ago:
Raszyn radio tower from the air 

Semi-automatic (short story)

The desert wind fluttered his jacket, flapping the collars against his face. The sound of cloth flapping - jacket, trousers; he smiled; this was joy. His hands were deep in his trouser pockets, he faced the bright sun wearing his aviator sunglasses. He could feel the wind tugging at the roots of his hair, blown straight back. The desert was welcoming him. "If it were not for the wind, it would be unbearably hot. If it were not for the sun, it would be unbearably cold", he thought, knowing the desert well in both states. His hat was now safely stowed; he'd catch much sun today on his freckled skin.

He took a few steps forward, kicking at the light-green glassy fragments on the ground before him with the toes of his suede desert boots. In the distance, the mountain range spread out across the horizon, a day-and-half's walk away. Those peaks looked so close. It was still morning, the Piper that was to fly in and to pick him up with all his equipment was not due till one-thirty. What's to do? The experiment's all done, everything's packed... nothing to do but wait. Certainly not enough time to walk all the way into town and get back at the appointed hour for the rendezvous with the plane. But there was too much time for him to just waste time.

Jim looked at his watch. Damn. Two hours, fifty-five minutes. Time to just stand around, and contemplate. He reached for the pack of smokes in the breast-pocket of his denim work-shirt and lit a Camel with his Zippo, looking at those mountains as he inhaled his first puff. He'd spent the morning finishing his report and carefully stowing the geiger counter and the other kit back into the wooden crates – no, he had no duties that he could busy himself with. And he'd neglected to take a book with him; he'd read this week's Life magazine from cover to cover. The last call over the radio, half an hour earlier, confirmed that his plane was on schedule, and there was nothing he needed to worry about.

Two hours and fifty-five minutes. Jim had slept well that night, he was rested and did not need a nap. There'd be plenty to keep busy with once he'd get back to base, but there was not a thing he could do now. The wind picked up, moving small pebbles and whipping the sand around his ankles. Best not sit down. Radioactivity. The boxes were secure; no danger to them. Jim had been advised to take a semi-automatic carbine in case any mountain lions or coyotes came too close; he'd seen or heard none. His gun lay on one of the crates, wrapped in oilcloth to protect it from the fine, wind-blown sand.

The sun was getting ever higher in the April sky; perfectly azure with a few wisps of white cirrus off to the west. This was among the most beautiful expressions of nature he'd ever experienced, rivalling Alaskan auroras, or crisp winter mornings of his Minnesota home, or the blindingly bright sea-sparkle of the Atlantic ocean, when holidaying in North Carolina as a child.

He pulled out his notebook, preparing to jot down his thoughts – how he felt at that moment. No cares, just the sense of wonderment at being a living, conscious, part of Eternity. He half-closed his eyes and tilted his head up at the sun – he could feel the wind tugging on his sunglasses – and a powerful feeling of being alive surged through him. Alive and at one with it all. Forgetting that sense of Jim the five-foot-five wise guy, he became just an observing consciousness a part of the desert, bereft of personality, breathing the wind, sensing the sun in the crystalline sky. He held his eyes open, unblinking for a minute or two. The mountains seemed to draw closer, sliding towards him as if on a myriad parallel railroad tracks, as the sky shrank and expanded at the same time.

Jim struggled to write his thoughts as they passed – swiftly, not caring about neatness, just making sure he was getting it all down. He'd not done this before, but the idea made sense. On impulse he looked down. His boots blended with the desert floor; stamp! a small cloud of dust rose up. He noted an ant scurrying for cover. Was that ant thinking anything? Or just reacting to the sudden disruption? Did it feel fear, as he once did when, as a child, he'd strayed into the neighbor's corn and the farmer fired his rifle from afar into the crop? Should he shout 'Don't shoot!' or stay silent? The ant couldn't make that decision... and yet that plea from bygone days resonated with him as though the ant were calling to him in his childhood voice. He scribbled that thought down as well.

Jim tried to put aside all thought of his situation. The plane would come. There's nothing in his power to hasten or delay that. It would touch down on the airstrip behind him, the pilot would help him load the gear, they'd get in and fly back to Tonopah. He'll have a shower, eat a steak, drink a cold beer – watch some TV in his motel room  nice, but trite. Jot that thought down? No. No future pleasures, no present worries – THIS is living, he told himself, THIS moment. The HERE and the NOW.

Something made him put away the notebook into his jacket pocket. Having so, in a deliberate movement, he stretched out his arms to their fullest extent and tilted his palms to face the sun, framed in the gold rims of his glasses. The wind swept across the desert beating his face, and his arms; again he was aware of the flapping of cloth, of a sensation akin to riding a motorcycle, the sun and the wind together, the wind blowing that mountain range closer and closer – if he stood there for a million years, would the mountains have reached him by then? Jim concentrated on standing as still as he possibly could, intent on imaging what a geological age felt like. How did it feel to be a mountain? What does a day, a season, a year, feel like to a mountain?

All of a sudden he beamed in satisfaction at the thought that he'd not even stopped to check his watch. He was clueless as to how much time had passed. Blissful abandon had overtaken him; he felt tears welling up in his eyes and a feeling like being hugged from within. He responded with deep gratitude; to Creation, to the entire Universe.

He knew not how long he'd stood there in that state; the drone of an aircraft engine from the east returned him to the mundane.

Jim died of cancer in 1958, well short of his 40th birthday.

Before he died, he had time to assess those most meaningful moments in his unfulfilled life. It had been a beautiful life, though not long enough. He had much to be grateful for; he longed for more, for greater understanding; understanding through moments of unity with the Eternal.

"Gimme another shot, God!"

This time three years ago:
Jarosław Gowin quits as justice minister

This time four years ago:
So good to be back in Warsaw

This time five years ago:
At the President's

This time seven years ago:
Summer's here, and the time is right...

This time nine years ago:
Why I'm staying in Warsaw

Cleveland Park; twilight moods

A northerly wind blew all day yesterday, making it easy to judge the weather. As the clouds raced by in the icy wind (there was snow on the ground on Scottish and Northern English hills), clear sky emerged and the setting sun slanted low and strong across Cleveland Park. The sun set, the twilight held; magic hour. To the south east, storm clouds emptied their bellies on Tulse Hill, Sydenham, Penge and Crystal Palace. But Ealing stayed dry.

Below: Scotch Common, the road dividing Pitshanger Park to the north from Cleveland Park to the south. Cleveland Park a grassy rectangle is on a hill, rising from 26m above sea level to 42m above sea level at its southern end, on Cleveland Road.

Below: looking south-east at the distant deluge. Just after I'd snapped this pic, a lightning flash lit up the sky; I could discern a tiny explosion half-way down the lightning's zigzag path. The lightning disappeared, but for a fraction of a second there was a small fire in the sky that fizzled out, as though the lightning had fried a bird in flight.

Below: looking north towards Cleveland Road, the trees on the park's eastern edge in blossom.

Below: mock-Tudor houses look out across the park. The views from the top floor windows must be outstanding - Horsenden Hill and Harrow beyond.

Below: quintessential Ealing - decent homes for London's commuters.

These moods will stay with me - qualia of consciousness - memories, ready to be taken onwards on the infinite journey from Zero to One.

UPDATE 26-28 April 2017

A year on, the same springtime klimat is present. Below: the lower end of Castlebar Road

Below: a raincloud passes low over Cleveland Park, revealing strong light from a setting sun.

All is well.

This time three years ago:
Spring flooding in Jeziorki
[Interesting to compare last photo here with third photo in post above]

This time five years ago:
I need a new laptop. But which one?

This time seven years ago:
In search of the sublime aesthetic

This time eight year ago:
Ducks in Ogród Saski

This time nine years ago:
Should I stay or should I go?

Brexit: heart v. head, migration v. economy

Economic growth in the UK slowed in the first quarter of this year - up 0.4% quarter-on-quarter, compared to 0.6% in the fourth quarter of last year. This slow-down in the growth of business activity was to be predicted. In the run-up to the referendum on continued EU membership, many investment decisions are on hold as businesses take a wait-and-see approach.

Apart from a handful of mavericks, hardly any economists or business organisations support Brexit. Most of the economic and financial calculations concerning the effects of Brexit point to a negative outcome. In particular, the debate about trade should be particularly convincing; outside the EU, the UK would have to renegotiate its trade agreements around the world. Countries - including Commonwealth members - will not be looking kindly at the prospect of having to sit round the negotiating table with Britain and haggle about issues that have already been settled (in trade agreements reached with the entire EU).

The question of whether a post-Brexit UK would be first or last in the queue to negotiate any future trade agreements seems spurious - when you're inside the shop, why rush to leave it so you can negotiate your way back in from the outside?

Trade means jobs, jobs are livelihoods for families. Trade also means investment. Many global corporations have invested in building factories in the UK to have a manufacturing base within the EU, with the benefits of a good business environment. Employers can see that. Economists can see that. It makes eminent economic sense for the UK to remain part of the world's richest trading bloc.

Norway and Switzerland have access to the EU single market, but without any say in determining the regulations that govern that market. The UK - a strong exporter of services - wants to complete (finally) the single European market in services. It is far less likely to do so outside the EU than within it.

Looking at the plethora of economic arguments around trade, investment, jobs and the economy, the Remain camp's warnings of the negative consequences of Brexit ring true.

Those in favour of Brexit are either comfortably well off - or indeed very wealthy. The mouthpieces for Brexit, the Daily Mail, the Daily Telegraph, the Daily Express, the Times and the Sun are owned by people who are not domiciled in the UK for tax reasons. These high net-worth individuals are insulated by any negative economic aftershocks of Brexit. "The economy is only growing by half a percent? Investors are pulling out and businesses are shedding labour? Welcome the bracing global economy!" I feel a visceral dislike for those who blithely promote Brexit knowing full well they will not be touched by its economic consequences.

But maybe it's not just about the economy? Sovereignty, taking back control of our borders, migration, I no longer recognise the land where I was born... 

Emotions. Feelings.

But back to the economy. Survey after survey has shown that the economic impact of EU migration to the UK is beneficial. EU migrants - and Poles are a significant part of that - generally come to the UK to work and pay taxes. [Once they find work here, they soon discover that generous tax-breaks - in-work benefits - mean they take home more than they expected, but that's another story.]

Non-EU migrants are more likely to be jobless, less likely to integrate with society at large. Non-EU migrants are not subject to EU rules, so if the UK wanted to 'take back control of its borders' - what's stopping it? Brexit will not make any difference.

Because EU migrants are a net contributor to the UK economy, any attempt to deny them access to the UK labour market will lead to a slow down in economic growth. The economy is not a zero-sum game; one job created here can create further, new, jobs elsewhere. Value added by a newcomer spreads around the economy.

Without access to a well-motivated and hard-working addition to the UK labour force, the economy will run out of steam. GDP growth will falter, and the UK will be increasingly hard-stretched to pay for its healthcare, social services, education and security.

The Brexiters are willing to accept that. For them, leaving the EU is the chance to embark on a Quixotic journey to seek the Lost Eldorado of a Golden Age, an age of politeness and deference, fair play and fair hair, a land where Everybody Knew Their Place. The Brexit campaign is led by the rich and privileged who would like to turn the UK into an offshore tax haven.

Scotland will no doubt secede from a post-Brexit United Kingdom, leaving a fragmented state drifting, friendless.

You cannot turn the clock back. The EU has proved amazingly successful at preventing war between its members. On the long march from barbarism to civilisation, the EU, an ongoing work in progress, has proved to be a step in the right direction. Stronger Together, Better In.

Finally, anyone comparing the EU to the USSR knows not what Katyń or Hlodomor or the Gulag mean.

This time last year:
Golf course update

This time three years ago:
Review of Krzysztof Osiejuk's latest book

This time four years ago:
The Shard changes London's skyline

This time five years ago:
In praise of Warsaw's trams

This time six years ago:
Plans for the railway line to Radom
[five and half years it took to go from plans to realisation]